At quilt displays across the United States, Hannah Brancato and Rebecca Nagle of FORCE will lay out hundreds of large, red felt squares in parks and on campuses crafted by survivors and their allies. As someone who has been to a display of the monument, I can testify to its power. Within that space is silence, solidarity, strength, sorrow, and salvation. Visitors are educated on supporting survivors and given room to contemplate how. To deny the impact of sexual violence on entire communities once you have walked among the squares is impossible, and so is the urge to do something about it.

That kind of conversation, that kind of experience, and that message is a direct challenge to a rape culture, and so is the act of creating space devoted to supporting survivors. That’s a deliberate choice for Brancato and Nagle, and this tour is only the beginning: as the quilt grows, it will become a tremendous display for the national mall that reads “Not Alone.” After that, the FORCE co-founders hope to push for a permanent monument to survivors on the same ground.
“We are creating a new culture where survivors are publicly supported, rather than publicly shamed,” Brancato said.

Carmen is the Feminism and Straddleverse Editor at Autostraddle, a Contributing Writer at Everyday Feminism, and Communications Coordinator / Tweeter-in-Chief at the Feminist Majority Foundation. She's mother to the most adorable dog on Earth and hates paying more than one dollar for a good slice of pizza. At times, she self-identifies as "the baddest bitch." She tweets @c_rios and writes vague paragraphs about her feelings on Tumblr. You can send her hate mail, love notes, and/or photos of your dog via carmen [at] autostraddle [dot] com.

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3 Comments

We’ve been making a similar quilt at Vassar for the past three years and it is always incredible and powerful to see everyone’s stitched together, and to see what’s added to it as the years pass by. I’m glad this project is happening!

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